INTHEBLACK September 2021 - Magazine - Page 63
OPEN VIDEO IN A NEW WINDOW
Paul Luczak CPA works with clients in the performing and recording industries, helping them manage
accounting issues around touring and royalties. His client is the Australian singer, songwriter, multiinstrumentalist and producer Holly Rankin, who performs as Jack River. In 2018, her debut Sugar Mountain
entered the ARIA Albums Chart at number 11.
AS TOLD TO JACQUELINE BLONDELL PHOTOGRAPHY JARROD BARNES
THE PRACTITIONER:
PAUL LUCZAK CPA
DIRECTOR OF MELBOURNE-BASED
FIRM THE GILD GROUP
Prior to establishing The Gild Group in 2015,
I helped build up another music financial
service company. From two of us in a
basement, we built a team of 45 staff across
Melbourne and Sydney. It was a unique
experience – learning the good, bad and ugly
of building and scaling a business.
When I decided to create The Gild Group,
I had a blank canvas to start from scratch again.
I was able to create engagement systems and
processes and recruit people – all the pieces of
the puzzle that make this whole machine work.
Fast-forward to 2021, and we now have
35 staff and the family is ever-growing, with
like-minded talented individuals coming in
to help clients.
Last year, our business management
department, which does a lot of music
touring-based work, obviously experienced
a large downturn.
On the flip side, JobKeeper and the
stimulus work kept the overall accounting
business quite busy.
We’ve also had a number of mergers.
We are now a much bigger family and pool
of talent, having brought in partners
specialising in other areas, such as hospitality
and building construction.
I first met Holly as part of my role to meetand-greet potential new clients who are
interested in our services. Initially, we helped
Holly and her team with compliance and
traditional accounting services.
Then, the relationship naturally evolved,
with Holly starting to look at new
opportunities and adding a touring business.
Her world just continued to expand, so it was
a natural evolution to continue to provide
further support to that side of her world.
W H AT D O YO U VA L U E A B O U T H O L LY ?
Holly is an entrepreneur at heart. I really
enjoy being that sounding board and
chatting through opportunities – sometimes
being the devil’s advocate, other times being
encouraging and helping to avoid the
pitfalls of the start-up world.
intheblack.com September 2021 63